WASHINGTON, D.C. - Family Research Council (FRC) expressed disappointment regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case Elane Photography v. Willcock, leaving the anti-free speech, religious liberty ruling of the New Mexico Supreme Court in place.

Of the decision FRC President Tony Perkins said:

"The Supreme Court's refusal to hear and uphold the First Amendment rights of Elaine Huguenin, a wedding photographer, are deeply disturbing. Does our nation's highest court really believe the price of citizenship is the surrender of conscience?

"The New Mexico Supreme Court's decision to allow a state commission to fine her for acting out her conscience would stun the Framers of the U.S. Constitution and is a gross violation of the First Amendment. Our nation's long tradition of respecting conscience is likely why 85 percent of Americans, according to a Rasmussen poll, support the right of photographers to decline participation in a same-sex wedding ceremony.

"The Supreme Court ignored an opportunity to reaffirm the basic principle that the government may not trample on fundamental rights of free speech and the free exercise of religion. These rights do not stop at the exit door of your local church, and instead extend to every area of a religious person's life.

"Americans are being forced by government to buy products like Obamacare, and are now being forced to engage in speech with which they morally disagree. Is the judicial branch now writing the epilogue to the American experiment in ordered liberty?

"The burden to protect the inalienable rights that are the cornerstone of our political success as a nation now falls to state and federal legislators. Americans cannot afford to be silent any longer to this affront to our First Freedoms," Perkins concluded.